Tuesday, November 24, 1998

Safe driving plea

Why can't there be consideration on the road?

Handicapped residents need to get to their appointments for the doctor. Unfortunately, every day our van driver experiences some form of driving difficulty. People not giving right-of-way on the freeway and disregarding stop signs, yield signs, etc. I often drive with him to the doctor's office with the patients. One day a car almost hit us while entering the parkway. My goodness, one of these days they are going to cause a fatal accident.

We should all be more conscious of the handicap vehicles on the road and understand you must have courtesy. We have to read the obituaries every day for loved ones loved and lost. Why cause heartache when it is already destined to come?

Please, for the sake of your grandmothers, friends and family members, please take heed when driving. We have often seen the driver plates on these vehicles. Would you like us to report you? How would you like to get a ticket in the mail?

We all want to get to our destination in one piece. Let's think about it when we get in our cars. This is a plea for the lives of the residents I happen to love very much and any other handicap resident out there as well as us all.

JOANN JOHNSON

Care Inn of Abilene

View from Baird

I sit over here just outside Baird and watch the folks over in the big city frettin' and wringin' their hands over the bond election.

It's fun to watch your city staff and other concerned citizens perform 180-degree turns, depending on their point of view on the issues.

Back in May I read that the chief of police and the fire chief asked for new computer equipment because what they have is 15 years old and about to fail. City staff says, "No! No! Do what you can with what you have! We just don't have the money, and the citizens won't vote for new computers! We gotta have lighted basketball courts!"

Then comes the infrastructure bond election. Now city staff says the citizens simply must vote for the issues because the "bond indebtedness" is just too low and the debt raters might frown on Abilene if they let the bond indebtedness get too low.

I betcha these guys could have sold cases and cases of snake oil.

Sometime before Dec. 8, you folks over in the big city might capture ole Roy in the coffee shop and ask him if CAD (computer aided dispatch) is anything like infrastructure, ya know, like them lighted basketball courts and such.

I tell ya, it's a real hoot sittin over here watchin you folks in the big city. Shoot, I think I'll drive over to Abilene next year on New Year's Eve and play some horse on one of them new lighted basketball courts!

RANDY SMITH

Baird

Via e-mail

Cut his benefits

Since the American people have said over and over in polls that they don't want President Clinton kicked out of office but also said that they dislike his personal attributes, and the realities are that he will not be impeached and convicted, then as a minimum punishment I believe his retirement pay and benefits should be eliminated.

A censure would be meaningless and probably unconstitutional, but a hit in the pocketbook would be real punishment for the shame he has brought to America and the presidency and Oval Office.

JIM ARNOLD

Eastland

Via e-mail

A holiday verse

Dash dashed. Starr falls. Bill walks. Newt crawls.

JOHNNY HUGHES

Lubbock

Via e-mail